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Trump’s Nuclear Deterrence Challenge

America’s nuclear triad is sorely out of date, left to age by a president who saw it as a relic of the Cold War.

By

Franklin Miller and

Keith B. Payne

Updated Nov. 20, 2016 5:44 p.m. ET

President-elect Donald Trump will soon be working with his national security team to establish priorities on security and defense policy. Two challenges will demand immediate and unrelenting attention.

Throughout the campaign Mr. Trump emphasized the need to destroy Islamic State, also known as ISIS, as a functioning terrorist organization. Since there is no way to negotiate with or reliably deter medieval zealots willing to murder and die for their misbegotten cause, military force is the only answer at this point. The next...